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A NEED OF GUIDELINES FOR FALSE ACCUSATION, SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VISHNU TIWARI CASE


“It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is TIME.”


Anything can be achieved with time, anything can be done with time and we all know how precious time is for us, but what if this precious resource is snatched away from you? The same agony has been experienced by a citizen of Uttar Pradesh, Vishnu Tiwari. The man spent 20 years in prison for false accusation of rape charges. Vishnu was evicted on 3rd March this year and had only a little money with him from which he hires a rikshaw and went to his lonely home in Silawan Village. Incidents like this originate a serious question that what are the guidelines for compensating the person who has been the victim of false accusation?


In September 2000, Vishnu Tiwari got arrested on the basis of an FIR by the woman and her family. It was mentioned in the FIR that the woman got sexually assaulted, raped and beaten when she was 5 months pregnant. He was charged under SC/ST Act and the Lalitpur court sentenced him for imprisonment for life. His appeal could not make it to the Superior courts as the documents of the case were not properly arranged and this injustice lasted for 20 rigorous years. The saddest part is that the jail authority after feeling pity appealed to the Allahabad High Court for his innocence. He was only 16 years when he was blamed for having assaulted a SC lady on her way to the fields at 2 PM on 16 September 2000. Throughout court procedures, the lower court held Tiwari blameworthy and accused him of assault for which he was given a 10-year prison term under IPC Section 376 by Lalitpur District Court notwithstanding life detainment under SC ST Atrocity Act.


Following the sentence, Tiwari has been in jail since 2000 and his allure for equity essentially failed to receive any notice. At the point when the Apex courts are opened at absurdly early times for Extremists, an honest Tiwari's case went unlisted for a very long time. It was solely after the obstruction of the legal advisor of Vidhik Seva Samiti who brought up that Tiwari had gone through 20 years in prison that the case was recorded for hearing.


Vishnu told that he is illiterate and has no skillset as he spend his precious years in jail, he has no means of living as the buffalos that his family had in the early 20s are also lost, and he added that the ancestral land of his family has been sold in order to pay the lawyer’s bills. Vishnu narrated his hopelessness condition by mentioning that his father, mother and two brothers have died and he could not able to attend any of their funerals. He added that the world has changed a lot as compared to when he was put behind bars.


There have been a number of cases like Vishnu’s all over the world. In the year 1989, 5 teenagers of New York were convicted for raping and assault a young lady in the Central Park. These Five teenagers were- Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise who were convicted of Raping Trisha Meili who was there for a jog in the park. Trisha was badly beaten that she lost his memory and remember nothing about the incident. After 5 to 10 years in Jail all were convicted of the charges as the real criminal accepted the crime ha has done. The New York City Mayor paid a total of $41 Million to the five innocents as compensation, but nothing compensate the precious years wasted for being innocent.


In Chennai, a College student was convicted for raping a woman from his neighbour,he faced trial for a heart-breaking 7 years but at last when the DNA test of the Child that the woman gave birth to did not match that of Santosh then the man was set free. The court has awarded ₹15, 00,000 as compensation but again his 7 years are no equal to those 15 Lacs.


Another notable case is of Yogesh Gupta, a 44years Delhi estate agent, who bring a client to a piece of property which she wished to buy and after that dropped her at the metro station, but the women ask for money and threatened him to register a complaint of rape. In spite of having a CCTV camera footage in the apartment the police did not believe or rather did not accepted the piece of evidence. When the case was finally settled in the court the women confessed about the false accusation. However, the damage caused to Yogesh could never be retrieved.


In a report of Delhi Commission for Women it was mentioned that 53% of the rape charges reported were FALSE. This is indeed a violation of Men’s Human rights and a fear has been created with a weapon as lethal as it sucks the entire life from a Man but don’t kill him; A false Rape case. Coming back to the case of Vishnu Tiwari which attracted the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission). NHRC has given notification to the main secretary and chief general of police, Uttar Pradesh, requesting an itemized report of the matter, seeing that this is by all accounts a non-utilization of Section 433 CrPc. As per Section 433, the public authority can drive sentences. The NHRC has likewise looked for subtleties of the activity against local officials capable for the situation and steps taken for restoration of Tiwari. Moreover, BJP Leader Kapil Mishra approached the Supreme Court looking for headings to the Center for outlining rules to guarantee strong action against false complainants in criminal cases and for remunerating survivors of such unjust arraignments. DM of Lalitpur in an interview stated that all the schemes under the Government to help the needy including Ration Card, MGNREGA job card and benefits under AAYUSHMAN BHARAT and PM AWAS Yojana will be provided to Vishnu.


In India where Rape is considered as the strictest crime, imagine being falsely accused for it. All the reputation, all the rights are denied if a tag of “Rapist” follows you. Even if the judiciary doing justice acquit him of all the charges but the process prints unrubbed stains on the person’s character and life. The topic of women security is indeed important and same should go for men as well. The Indian people needs to understand the gravity of the situation that how important it is to achieve equality in such a sensitive topic. From decades we are fighting in bringing women to equal footing as men are in the society, which is quite correct and being achieved at a rapid rate, but along the line we forgot about the equality of men which is of equal importance.


In India there has been a stereotype that, if a complaint of rape has been recorded then it is the man who is wrong, still prevails. The people declare the man Rapist much before being proven guilty which in turn lead to the denial of Human rights of a man. A person cannot restart the life after wasting the precious years life for a false case. No matter how much a victim of false accusation is compensated, no one can bring back those years of his life. The case of Vishnu Tiwari not only makes us feel pity but also scared as we all can be the next Vishnu as well. The saddest part is that the victim of False accusation is not only the one who suffer but his family is also lived a troublesome life. There is a big need for guidelines to punish the person who intentionally reported a fake complaint.


The investigation, which was dispatched by the NHRC and directed by the Center for Women's Development Studies, tried to comprehend sexual viciousness against females from the viewpoint of sexual predators. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has suggested shielding the assault denounced from "False cases" by non-revealing about their characters until they are seen as blameworthy. The NHRC suggestion has come when cases of Rape are prompting public shock and general society and the ideological groups the same are requesting the strictest activity against the blamed. In Short the Details about the accused should not be revealed to the public until the accused is proven guilty this may help safeguarding the victim of false accusation to lose reputation and other hardships that follows. Finally, the people should understand that equality means equal from both sides Women as well as Men. The stereotypes that declare the man guilty and women innocent should be removed, else the lethal weapon of False rape case would end up killing the life out of a living man like Vishnu Tiwari.



REFERENCES

Rohan Singh , HNLU Batch 2019



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